


You Can't Protect Me From Everything

by strawberryschaos



Category: Glee
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25239799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberryschaos/pseuds/strawberryschaos
Summary: When Marley arrives in NYC to start college and her life seems to flip upside down, there's nobody better that she can think of to call for help than Santana. However, Santana offers a little more help than Marley had bargained for.
Relationships: Marley Rose/Original Female Character, Ryder Lynn/Original Male Character (Mentioned), Santana Lopez & Marley Rose
Kudos: 20





	You Can't Protect Me From Everything

Marley was kind of freaking out. Everything had been going well for so long, she supposed she should have expected something to go wrong eventually. She’d gotten into NYADA. She’d found a place (a room in a houseful of other students, but still) that she could actually afford to rent, with her mom’s help for the first few months until she found a job. Her stuff was in a moving van on the way to her new place, and she had just arrived by train in the city. Things were going great, and Marley had never been happier. 

But then, of course, there had to be a problem. She had just left the train station when she got a call from the owner of the house she was supposed to live in, who told her the basement, where her room-to-be was located, had flooded in a recent storm. She wouldn’t be able to move in until the issues were fixed, which could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. 

And so there Marley was. Sitting on a bench outside the train station, freaking out but trying not to show it too much. She didn’t want to seem like a target for anything. She knew she couldn’t afford a hotel room until she could move into her place, especially not if it took weeks. She didn’t want to call her mom to fix this, she would just tell her to come home, which wasn’t an option. There was only one thing she could think of to do, only one person she could ask for help, so she sighed as she called Santana. 

~~~

The two talked all the time over calls and texts, so Santana wasn’t surprised to see Marley’s name pop up when her phone rang. She answered the call with a simple, “Hey, what’s up?” and a smile even though Marley couldn’t see it. 

Marley sniffled sadly. “I’m sitting outside a train station, all my stuff is in a van that’s somewhere between Ohio and here, and I just got a call that the place I’m supposed to be moving into is flooded and I can’t move in for at least a couple days, maybe a few weeks, and hotels are too expensive especially if it takes a long time for them to fix the flooding. I don’t wanna call my mom because she was nervous enough about me moving here and I just… what should I do?” 

Santana paused, taking in the rambled flood of words. “Woah, Rose, alright, settle. You’re fine, even though you got yourself into the pickle of the century. What train station are you at?” Marley told her. “Alright, sit tight. I’ll be there in a bit.”

So, Marley sat tight. She clutched her backpack in her lap and tried not to think about how many of the men that walked by were staring at her and dug her fingernails into her arms when one of them sat next to her. He started talking to her and she was mentally begging Santana to show up as soon as possible, just wanting out of the situation. Still, Marley tried not to show how close she was to losing it. If she seemed scared, this would only get worse. 

Santana walked around the corner ten painfully long minutes later. Her eyes fell on Marley, then narrowed when she spotted the guy sitting beside her. Walking over quickly, Santana said, “Hey, Marley. This guy being a creep?” Marley didn’t answer, but Santana didn’t need her to. She turned to the man, crossing her arms. “Leave my girl alone,” she said firmly, a fiery look in her eyes. He left, but not without a scoff and a mutter of something nasty about the two of them. 

Marley practically jumped off the bench. “Thank god you’re here,” she told Santana, dragging her hands through her hair. “I’ve decided that this city hates me and this is the universe telling me this was a terrible idea.”

Santana rested her hands on Marley’s shoulders. “Marley Rose, you are letting your worries get the best of you and you know it. You’re going to do fine here. Remember, you got into NYADA. Even Rachel didn’t do that on her first try. The city doesn’t hate you just because of a setback, drama queen. You’re gonna be fine. C’mon, our Uber won’t wait around the corner forever.” 

Nodding and settling her backpack on her shoulders, Marley followed Santana around the building to where the car was waiting and slid into the backseat after her. 

“You can stay with me and Berry and the boys until your place is ready,” Santana told her, “We’ll find somewhere for your stuff to go until then. What all were you bringing with you anyways?” 

Marley pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened the packing list she’d made weeks ago. “There’s already a bed frame, dresser, and desk in the room since it’s basically student housing. This backpack is just overnight stuff, and the moving van has my mattress, bedding, clothes, night table, a lamp, all my school stuff, and a few decorations.” 

“We can probably fit all that into the loft, for god’s sake. The way you made it sound over the phone you were bringing a whole truckload of stuff. This is gonna be fine, Marley, promise.” Santana smiled at her. “So, aside from all the disaster, first impressions of the city?” 

“I haven’t been paying much attention,” Marley admitted, “But it seems cool so far. It’s not like you and everyone else didn’t drag me around to every landmark when I came for my audition, I’ve seen the city.” 

“You saw it as a tourist, not someone who lives here—God, I sound like Berry.” 

They both laughed and spent the rest of the ride in comfortable silence, Marley watching the city pass through the window. When the car pulled up outside the loft, they thanked the driver and headed towards the door, Marley clutching her bag and Santana confirming things on her Uber app. 

Santana opened the unlocked door, calling in to her housemates, “Hey guys, look who I found!” 

Rachel emerged from the kitchen with a mug of tea, Blaine turned around on the couch, and Kurt stuck his head out of his room, all with confused expressions, to see what Santana was talking about. 

Blaine reacted first, smiling warmly and calling out, “Marley! Hey!” 

~~~

Ten minutes later they were all sitting around the living room, watching Marley as she called the moving company. She explained the situation, then paused. “No, I understand that different drop-offs are different prices. This address is closer than the other one, and I don’t mind paying the original amount-” She paused again, letting out a sigh. “I know what the scheduled route was, but I’m not at that address, I can’t move in there today as planned-” 

Marley was cut off by Santana taking the phone from her hand. “The girl is telling you she can’t have her stuff dropped off there. You’re going to get paid more for less driving. What the hell is the problem?” 

Marley groaned quietly. “I can handle it myself, you know,” she told Santana, but her comment fell on deaf ears as Santana continued to argue with the moving company. 

After a long, strongly-worded conversation, Santana hung up the phone with a satisfied smile. “Your stuff is coming here. Should be about forty-five more minutes.”

Marley nodded. “Thanks,” she said. She wished she could have done it herself, but at least it got handled, right? 

Santana tossed Marley’s phone to her. “No problem,” she replied.

“Yeah, Santana learned how to do her whole Lima Heights Adjacent thing verbally instead of just by slapping people,” Kurt joked. 

“Watch out, you’ll be a Karen before you know it,” Rachel added, smirking at Santana, who rolled her eyes at them both as she sat back down. 

~~~

That evening, long after they’d brought Marley’s stuff in and found places around the loft to keep it all temporarily, they were all sitting around on the couches. Blaine headed to the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a tray containing five glasses of layered colourful liquids. “Marley, I made one for you if you want it but there’s no pressure, someone else will drink yours if you don’t want it,” he told her with a reassuring smile. 

Marley smiled back. “Thanks,” she said, shrugging slightly and picking the glass up. She was with people she trusted and in a safe place, and it would be far from the last time she was offered a drink, so why not? She took a small sip, nearly spilling the drink all over herself when she heard a loud clink.

Santana had set her glass down hard on the metal tray, causing the sound. “Blaine!,” she said, her voice somewhere between scolding and shock. 

Blaine looked at her, confused. “What?”

“She’s seventeen.”

“Okay? You remember what we were all getting up to at her age, right? One drink isn’t going to kill her.”

“Us at seventeen is a different story.”

“Look, guys,” Marley put the cup down, “Never mind, then, if it’s gonna be an issue. Thanks, Blaine, but one of you can have it.” She tucked her feet up onto the chair she was sitting in, setting her glass back down on the tray. “It’s no big deal, anyways.” Despite her calm words, her tone was kind of annoyed. 

Blaine gave Santana a look, but they dropped the subject. Marley still joined in the conversation and had fun with the other four, but she spent most of the night sitting in that chair with her legs tucked up and her arms crossed. As much as she knew Santana was protective over her and was just trying to help, she couldn’t help but be frustrated. The whole reason she was even here was because she was moving out for college, nearly eighteen, and becoming more independent. She had just left one very loving but very protective mother figure and it felt like all she’d done was immediately gain a new one.

~~~

The next morning, Marley woke up on her mattress on the floor of the loft. She grabbed her phone and let out a sigh, flooding with embarrassment, when she realized it was nearly noon. She had no problems with sleeping in, but on her first day staying at someone else’s place, even if that someone was her close friend? She hated it. 

Still, she couldn’t lay there dwelling forever. She sat up and stretched, grabbing an outfit at random from one of the boxes that contained her clothes. She headed to the bathroom to change, and when she came out Santana was sitting on the couch.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” she said in a teasing voice.

Marley rolled her eyes. “Morning, San,” she replied, “Where’s everybody else?”

“Berry’s at rehearsal. I think Kurt had a class or something. And I made Blaine go get coffee because we’re out and the guy at the deli always stares at my boobs.” 

Marley laughed a little and sat down on the couch beside Santana. “Thanks, by the way. For letting me hang around here until they fix my room.”

“Yeah, of course. It’ll be nice having time to hang with you anyways. I’ll finally have a board game teammate that isn’t a control freak.” Santana laughed. “So, update me on everything that’s happened since last time I saw you all. How is everyone?”   
“San, you saw us a month ago,” Marley pointed out, “But okay, hm. You remember Ryder’s boyfriend? Spencer, the Warbler? Well, he left for college a couple weeks ago, he’s staying with family near Yale to get used to the area before classes start. Ryder was pretty down about it and missed him a lot, so we all had a party to take his mind off it. Not much of a party, just the four of us hanging around my house when my mom wasn’t home, Ray’s older brother Leo bought us some stuff. It was fun.” Marley smiled. “Speaking of Ray, she’s taking a year off to work then she’s thinking about trying to get into a school around here. Not for anything performance, but still, having her close would be nice.”

Santana raised an eyebrow. “Back it up a minute there. You guys had a party?”

Marley sighed. “Yes.” 

“Marley-”

“What? What is so horrible about that, Santana? What about four people who are all very close and trust each other more than anything hanging out at home having a tiny bit to drink is such a problem for you?” 

It took a moment for Santana to find her words. “Marley, it’s… you’re underage, the restrictions exist for a reason. Did anyone other than the four of you and Leo know you guys were drinking?” Marley was silent, crossing her arms. “That’s what I thought. What if something had happened to one of you? I know you all just wanna grow up and be adults, but you’re not, and acting like you are will just get you hurt.” 

Marley almost laughed. “First of all, you’re barely legal yourself. Second of all, this is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever heard. You had a fake ID when you were my age, for god’s sake!”

“Yeah, and I messed up in ways I don’t want you to. It’s called learning from experience, and it sucks ass when you learn hard shit that way. I don’t want you to deal with that.”

Marley huffed and stood up. She grabbed her wallet from her backpack and shoved her feet into her nearest pair of shoes.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Santana asked, watching her in shock.

“Out,” Marley replied matter-of-factly, “So that neither of us say something we’ll regret.” 

“Marley Rose-!” Santana tried to call after her, but the door shutting hard cut her off mid-sentence. 

Just a moment later, Blaine opened the door. “What the hell happened to Marley? I haven’t seen her that fired up in ages.”

“Shut up, Anderson.”

~~~

Marley walked around for a while, trying to relax. She stopped at a drugstore that she walked past to buy a few things she still needed, then found herself sitting in a Starbucks with a hot tea in one hand and her phone in the other, pressed to her ear as she told Ray the whole story. 

“It’s not just today, she’s been all over me since I got here. It’s sweet sometimes, especially since she doesn’t act like that with many people, but after awhile it’s just smothering,” Marley sighed, feeling her phone buzz. She ignored it, planning to check the text once she got off the phone with Ray, but it kept vibrating nearly nonstop as they tried to talk. Marley finally looked at the texts. “And now she’s blowing up my phone. I’ll talk to you later, okay? I love you too. Bye.” 

Marley hung up the phone and read through all of Santana’s texts, which started out angry and turned panicked. Marley texted back, I’m fine. On the way back now.

~~~

When Marley opened the door to the loft, she nearly walked right into Santana. “What the- hey,” she said, frowning with confusion in her eyes. 

“You scared the shit out of me, you know.”

“Well then maybe calm down a little bit. I’m not a little kid. I’ll be eighteen in a month and a half.” 

“So I can’t worry about you now?” Santana gave Marley a look, crossing her arms. 

“You’re past just worrying about me though. You’re overbearing. I’ve been here for one day and you haven’t let me deal with anything on my own!” Marley huffed. “I can handle my own problems and make my own decisions.”

“I just want you to be comfortable here-”

“If you want me to be honest, I’d be more comfortable somewhere else if you’re going to smother me the whole time.” The words surprised Marley a little coming out of her mouth, but they weren’t untrue. “I want to have fun here. I’m excited to spend time with you. But not if you’re going to try to act like a parent.”

Santana sighed, and when she spoke again, all the anger was gone from her voice. “I just… the shit I got into at your age would make your ears bleed to hear about. Sure, it was fun sometimes, but a lot of it wasn’t. A lot of it was shit. I don’t want you to get hurt like that.” 

“You can’t protect me from everything. I appreciate you trying to help, but maybe don’t try to get between me and every single obstacle, yeah?” Marley smiled. 

“Alright. I’m…” Santana paused. “I’m sorry, Marley.”

“No worries,” she replied, stepping forwards to give Santana a hug. “You were trying to help. And sometimes that help is awesome, like with that guy at the train station yesterday, god he was creepy.” 

“Men are the worst,” Santana said, laughing a little as she returned Marley’s hug, “There’s your first piece of advice about this city. You’re gonna get catcalled and stared at. Ignore them. This is going to sound totally cheesy, but they want a reaction. Don’t give them that. They probably won’t leave you alone and they’ll probably insult you, but they’d do that no matter what.”

“So, NYC lesson one; men here are no different from men in Ohio.”

“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!” Santana laughed. “Can you tell I’ve been watching too much TV with Kurt?” 

“In the nicest way possible? Absolutely.” Marley grinned. 

“You are such a little shit!” Santana exclaimed, lightly punching Marley’s shoulder, but she was grinning too.

~~~

Once everyone got home that night, they all settled in the living room. They spent a long time questioning what to do with themselves, but settled on playing a game. All the board games were booed by at least one person, so the card sets were brought out. It took no time at all for them to settle on Cards Against Humanity. 

The game was chaos that had them all laughing nonstop, and Santana had them all beat by a landslide by the time they stopped playing. Although it was late, nobody felt like going to bed, so they argued over Netflix selections for way too long while Blaine grabbed a bunch of snacks from the kitchen.

Marley listened to Kurt and Rachel debate which season of Drag Race would be better to watch and smiled. Sure, this was far from how she’d expected her first couple of days in New York to go, but now that everything had calmed down she wouldn’t trade it for anything. She was surrounded by friends, she was safe, and she was happy. She felt like this was some sort of movie or dream, too good to be true, and she’d realize any second that none of it was real. 

But of course, it was real. Things were going great, and Marley had never been happier.


End file.
